The present invention relates to a plastic retaining clip for clamping components, particularly brake lines, to motor vehicles onto a stay bolt on the vehicle, provided with circular ridges, which is welded to a supporting plate, wherein the retaining clip comprises a base body, which is provided with a bore for housing the stay bolt and of which the underside butts against the supporting plate when the retaining clip is pressed onto the stay bolt, wherein the retaining clip further comprises clamping means designed integrally with the base body and which grip the components, and wherein the retaining clip further comprises at least two resilient gripping jaws provided with notches which are connected in one piece to the base body and/or the clamping means, these gripping jaws being disposed substantially at the same angular distance around the centre axis of the bore of the base body and the distance of the gripping jaws from each other being less than the diameter of the stay bolt, so that after the insertion of the stay bolt the gripping jaws with their notches engage the ridges of the stay bolt because of their resilient recovery.
Such a retaining clip is described in German specification DE-OS No. 32 38 345. With this known retaining clip brake lines of motor vehicles can be secured in an advantageous way to a stud. The mounting of this known retaining clip can, however, give rise to problems if the brake lines are fitted, as is usual, to the underside of the vehicle, and if this underside of the motor vehicle is treated with an undersealing agent.
The undersides of motor vehicles are nowadays often treated with a protective coating consisting of a relatively pliant, tough tar-like material as protection against corrosion. Since on the one hand the studs can be welded only to the rough automobile body and on the other hand brake lines must not be covered by undersealing agent, the brake lines can only be fitted after the undersealing agent has been applied to the underside of the vehicle provided with the stud.
If the known retaining clip is mounted on a stud coated with undersealing agent, then some of the underseal is scraped off the stud and becomes jammed between the underside of the stud and the surface onto which the stud is welded. The retaining clip cannot then achieve its intended final position. More importantly however, a substantial portion of the pliant, tough undersealing agent is left behind on the stud itself. A a result, the notches of the gripping jaws are prevented from fully engaging the circular ridges of the stud. Thus there is the risk of the retaining clip slipping off the stud when exposed to traffic conditions, and this can even put the braking system of the motor vehicle out of action.
A further problem arises from the fact that the fitting of the retaining clips is carried out automatically by means of hand-operated automatic appliances which cannot recognise a possible faulty assembly.
German gebrauchsmuster No. DE-GM 84 17 558 discloses a collar nut of plastics for turning onto a stud provided with a thread. This collar nut is provided with projections which scrape off the undersealing agent adhering to the stud during the screwing-on of the collar nut. This collar nut does, however, necessitate the use of a threaded stud and thus the turning of the nut when being mounted. The retaining clips of the kind described in No. DE-OS 32 38 345 do not, however, require any turning motion during assembly, since the brake lines are mounted in the clamping means of the retaining clip before assembly and this determines the angular position of the retaining clip with regard to the studs.
The object of the invention is to provide a plastics retaining clip of the kind set out in No. DE-OS 32 38 345 which can be mounted securely onto a stud covered with undersealing agent.